EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion László Andor commented: "The crisis has transformed the future of shipbuilding, with much of this industry moving to low-cost areas, particularly in Asia, whose market share has been growing hugely since the run-up to the crisis.

A loss in purchasing power in the eight member states mentioned translates into a similar loss of purchasing power for the EU civil servants. For officials working at headquarters, the salary adjustment has to be seen against developments in the cost of living in Brussels (the amount of the adjustment is obtained by multiplying the index representing the variation of the cost of living in Brussels by the specific indicator measuring changes in the purchasing power of national civil servants). For EU officials working elsewhere, indexes comparing the cost ...[+++]of living in their place of work to Brussels are applied.

For EU officials working elsewhere, indexes comparing the cost of living in their place of work to Brussels are applied.

In times of hardship, our action must be geared to help those most in need. To work to protect jobs through action on social charges. To immediately address the long-term job prospects of those losing their jobs, through the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund and an accelerated European Social Fund. To cut energy costs for the vulnerable through targeted energy efficiency. To address the needs of those who cannot yet use the internet as a tool to connect.

This requires harmonization of the classification criteria for medicinal products used by the Member State such as toxicity, counter indications, warnings, dependency risks, etc. The direct consequence of the harmonization will be to enshrine the rights of European citizens to take with them (reasonable) quantities of the medicines they need for their personal use when they travel in Europe.

* * * * The Third Periodic Report also includes a number of new or more detailed analyses - a comparison between Community regional disparities and those in the United States; - an updated and extended version of the synthetic index used to rank the regions on the basis of the severity of their social and economic problems; - regional differences in labour costs; - an analysis of regional migration and its trend; - infrastructure expenditure and endowment in the regions; - different types of region (regions lagging behind, declining industrial regions, agricultural regions, frontier regions, urban problem regions, peripheral regions ...[+++] and islands); - underemployment, particularly in agriculture; - forward-looking analysis of long-term population trends, medium-term labour force trends and job requirements in the regions; - the impact on the regions of expenditure under the European Social Fund, the EAGGF and the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy; - the problems of regional disparities in the context of the pursuit of convergence and cohesion; - an analysis of Community regional policy since its inception.